Monday, February 28, 2011

Yesterday we needed to run some errands and the boys and I were going to be in the car while mother actually ran into the various second hand shops and estate sales that we were checking out, so I decided to talk to the boys about their heroes...well the ones they were going to make! Bringing some notebook paper and the DC Adventures book we got cracking on these new heroes!

First we have Connor, he is a robot/android that is looking for his creator (yea sort of like Data from Trek but Connor has not seen that story arc, and he came up with it himself) and fighting crime along the way. He has a strong investigative background and his computer like brain remembers just about everything...except who is creator is and what he was supposed to be doing!

Second Nathan, is an immortal mystic spellcaster who comes from a long family line of spellcasters. He has set himself up in Victoria City as an occult investigator and has met Connor's character and befriended him. Nathan's character knows all about his family and would rather NOT remember who they are...they are not the nicest set of spellcasters in the world. He can trace his family's history back to Atlantis and that may or may not be a cool thing!

Thirdly we have Austin who is a gadgateer and was responsible for repairing and updating a lot of Connor's hardware and software when he was originally found. He has the headquarters that the group uses, it is located underground along the docks in Victoria City and is very very large.

Now we have to come up with names for everybody AND Nathan was speaking about changing his character to something else BUT we shall see...overall it was a good couple of hours and the boys enjoyed talking about it instead of just plugging in and watching a movie!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Today was one of those days that just was wrong on so many levels...I did not sleep well, woke up with a headache and generally just wanted to crawl into a hole and sleep and couldn't. The new dog...Ace needed attention as did the kids and wife and...oh yea today was a gaming day.

I have the story arcs prepped for some time now and that was fine, I just didn't have the fun hat tied on. However the kids were excited and the new format of three hours worked great. We had our new player today and instead of trying to go slowly with him I got him involved in the actions right away...though I think he has forgotten a very important item. ((Hint hint Tim if your reading he needs to take notes during the game.))

The battle against the orcs went as expected, they almost stopped them from getting the chalice out of the temple but alas the orc leader got away and now they are in pursuit!! At the end it was fun and they are in one of the orc caves trying to find the chalice...one of their number has been "quested" to do this, it was fun. We even had a good old fashioned debate on party treasure split. :)

Next week...I need to set the time, I think 1pm till 4pm will work but I need to get the word out!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Alright well we managed to play just a bit of VnV yesterday and I held my breath...the kids in the AGC were not keen on the changes I made to their characters BUT after I explained why they were willing to give it a peek. We had three full characters ready to go:

Impact: A very quick agile martial artist type who likes to mix it up. Akina is the secret ID and she is working her internship at the Victoria City Times as she finishes up college.

Shockwave: The resident blaster/flyer of the group who has sonic abilities, not a scream, just the ability to throw a nice sonic beam. Desire` is her secret ID and she is a Graphic Design Artist working for Emmerson Electronics and by night a DJ.

Waraxe: Our brick of the group who didn't change into his hero ID the whole time he just did normal stuff! Tyson comes from Empire City (New York in our world) and his father died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he was a firefighter. Mom managed well enough and she was able to get him a bit of a scholarship out west in Victoria City. He came out and the airlines destroyed his 'axe, his guitar the one his dad gave him. Bummed he managed to find a beat up six string in a second hand store ;) and this one was magical. He can change into his hero form a Nordic warrior named Waraxe.

The fight was in a park where one of Victoria City's (Seattle in our world) beloved citizens was hosting a talent show, some bad guys (really nothing more than stepped up mooks) tried to kidnap her. The good guys beat them off, but Impact took off as the press arrived leaving Shoackwave and Tyson to get the glory, the final scene of the "comic" was Impact throwing her chopsticks through her sensei's tv!

We continue next week with the addition of three more heroes....and yea the kids had a blast and have been talking about it all morning when they see me.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Soooo....the kids in the AGC really hit the skids with the Doctor Who game I was very disappointed. I have been on a Supers kick of late and I like MnM 3e, I do and I am waiting for the Gm Screen to hit the pdf store but until then....

Yep you see it right VnV, this game has had a special place in my heart for years, we never really played it that much BUT we tried and as high school kids we fell in love with Champions. I will never forget though sitting in my buddies basement while he painted mini's and I ran through the rules and then we took those same newly super mini's and tried out the combat rules. We had a rough go of it but we did have fun!

Well now I am beginning to see the diamond in the rough here and I have to say that I'm really intrigued. The kids have spent two weeks making their characters and we begin today...I'll let you all know how it turned out!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

The Young Blades for the most part made level, well at least the three that have logged the most time playing have. Garran "Two Axe" Stonecutter, Ronnoc and his companion Tammathel are now second level!

Now this is a big deal because making level in my games tends to be difficult, at best. The challenges that they faced were many from a green slime fungus to a host of orcs to finally a Dark Priest whose patron was Orcus!!

Next Friday will be our next session and they had to flee from the Orcs who the Dark Priest led...the Blades had to get back to their village. The Orcs are in hot pursuit and we will have a very large battle next week in and around the village. Should be fun but I know we won't be finishing this until our first Saturday session on the 26th!

Up Next on the 19th will be the first meeting of the Northlands Gaming Group (the older group). Their character have been told to go to a small town and be their father's representative at the dedication of a church. This church is special because it is where he got his start many many years ago now. That's just the beginning... :)

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Well it's not really their logo but it got my attention as I was searching for some artwork to represent my sons and their friends that are playing Pathfinder (DnD 3.75). Yesterdays session was a great session in that there was no combat at all! It was a social session with four 10 year olds and a 7 year old...and they had a blast.

They were recovering in the local village of Fairhill, one of their number had become diseased and needed to rest under the care of the party's cleric. The other members decided to explore and learn some more of the town that they have been using as their base of operations...it was pretty cool. They have made friends are learning skills that will represent their choices for second level etc...

The session lasted 90 minutes and they couldn't believe that they were done, we are having a follow up session today to reward how well they played. I am very impressed with the roleplaying that is going on and they have scratched the surface now of the larger picture that is coming soon. :)

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

For those that really know me I am a died in the wool complete fan of the Marvel comics...yep I was hooked at an early age by Spiderman, Thor, Ironman and finally the X-men having has some very old issues of all of those comics. Well over the years my love has waned but one thing never did...I never really liked the DC universe...ever. I liked Batman...and that really was about it...until the Teen Titans and then I softened. Well I love the Young Justice cartoon and if you haven't seen it yet...I think you should!

I was concerned about continuity and then learned that this is set on Earth-16...and I went of course! I am no just loving the story and the characters...I am still behind one or two right now and tonight that gets fixed!!!

Monday, February 7, 2011

I love Supers, I learned to play DnD, Runequest and then Champions pretty much at the same time! Champions was one of the few games that I found GM's who could run me in games and it was enjoyable!! My high school group and I played a lot of Supers games, we played using VnV, Superhero 2044, Heroes Unlimited and of course Champions, later we played DC Heroes but that was more in college.

I started reading through the PDF of MnM 3 and I have to say that I am impressed with the better explanations. I am going to try my hand at conversions of characters that I have...but I have to say that it will most likely take me a bit.

Now onto the Emerald City...I am going to pick this up just to have the city book, I am also like the Sentinels that they have put out as intro characters. I will be looking at playing in some MnM3 games at GenCon this year!

IF things go well, I might even run one...I have some very interesting adventures from the way back days! ;)

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Tomorrow we will be home watching the snow fall and I will be working on my campaign as much as I can, in between snow blowing and taking the kids sledding!

The ideas I have are coming in better and better, this is something that I am really looking forward to and it seems that the player's are behind this as well. I want them to make level I want them to rise in prestige and power BUT I'm not giving it to them either they have to earn it and I am not afraid to kill off a player. I would never do that just to do it, but if it happens I am not going to fret over it like I would have in the past. This is going to be a rocking group who will be challenged I believe by some of what I am going to throw at them and I look forward to seeing how they overcome the challenges!

Party composition right now: Male Gnome Bard, Male Half-Orc Inquisitor, Male Half-Orc Ranger, Female Half-Elf Wizard, Male Human Cavalier. We will have a Female Half-Elf Rogue making guest appearances right now...though I'm not sure how that is going to work.

I am using one house rule right now, you can use your two traits to add two skills to your skill list, you don't get a +1 with them but they are always class skills for you. It really does help in making the characters a little more diverse. I would be happy to use other traits as well from the books IF someone can give me a nice little story why they have them.